Developing Oneself as an Effective Human Resources Practitioner - Essay Example

DEVELOPING ONESELF AS AN EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCES PRACTITIONER (Student Name) (Course No.) (Lecturer) (University) (Date) Developing Oneself as an Effective Human Resources Practitioner Activity 1: HR professional Map Summary CPID developed HR Professional Map as a tool to assist the practitioners to understand what they are suppose know and do at every level of their careers. The map is divided into four sections beginning with Core Professional Areas, which exist at the centre of the map and are relevant for all the practitioners irrespective of their level of position within the HR profession. These areas are Insights and strategy and solutions. These professional areas usually underpin the direction of applying professionalism within the business context. Therefore, the area allows the practitioners insights that are actionable and ensure deliverance of the situational HR solutions. With respect to the Leading HR, such professional area focuses on the active and insight led HR profession and actively leads to practitioners owning, shaping, and driving the organization (CIPD, 2016). Besides the two core HR strategies, the HR professional map also consists of 10 professional areas, eight behaviours and transitions and 4 bands. The four bands often combine all the professional areas and behaviours with the HR profession map giving an account of all the needed behaviours, strategies, and planning to ensure prosperous career within the HR domain. The map covers the personal life of an HR from the beginning until it reaches the maximum possible height. The 10 professional areas within the four bands of competence offers a picture of the required activities and knowledge within the HR profession needs to be successful. The map outlines three major areas of leadership: leading issues, personal leadership, and leading others. Then there is the Specialist Professional Areas where the map outlines 8 specialist professional which identifies what the practitioners needs to know and do in every band. These areas include organizational design, development, performance and reward, employee relations, employee engagement, and service delivery and information. To ensure effectiveness of the HR practice, CPID developed 8 behaviours that describe how the practitioners need to carry out their successful accomplishment. These behaviours include curious, decisive thinker, skilled influencer, personally credible, collaborative, driver to deliver, courage to challenge, and role model. With reference to curious, HRs have to show interest, willingness to learn, develop, and grow within the institution; decisive thinker requires use of information to make a defendable decision; skilled influences is the ability of persuading to acquire necessary support. Personal credible involves building professional reputation; collaborative ensures teamwork and ability to work with others; driven to delivery involves determinations to ensure effective job completion; courage to challenge requires confidence speaking, and roles mode is impartial and straightforward leading as an example. From my personal perspective, to be a reliable HR practitioner, I consider HR services and information important which needs to be delivered effectively, efficiently, and timely and data to guarantee professional management. In every organization, the professional area considered important is learning and talent development, which exist within Band 1. The band ensures that each worker has requisite skills needed to perform various duties and contribute effectively to organizational aims and long-term objectives (Ivanovic & Collin, 2006, 107). As an HR, the learning and development facilitator, I need to have the knowledge of the methods involved in training and development whether it is in-basket exercise, simulation, and coaching. Consequently, I have to assess the roles and performances of each worker. If there is improvement scope, I need to apply perfect learning method of enhancing the performance. Activity 2: Service Delivery to HR Customers For this section, I considered an example of HR Recruiter whose services would offer insight on the timely and quality service delivery to the customers. From the recruiter’s point of view, the following are the customers. To cater to this segment effectively, we can take the example of an HR Recruiter whose services will give us an insight about how he ensures timely & quality service. For a recruiter, the following could be the customers. 1. The organizational internal customers such as the employees from the line managers to the middle management, which are good enough to ensure filling of the in-house vacancies 2. The managers and supervisors since every recruiter often work in a team under a senior organizational official. If the HR were within industries dealing with volume recruitment process, then the pressure would be immense since the recruiter has to support them through provision of the most suitable candidate. 3. The external candidates are also customers to the recruiter, which might range from the mid and small companies to multinational corporations if the HR works with a consultancy firm. However, if the HR works within a company, then the customer to the recruiter would be the prospective candidate. An effective HR practice that caters for them is the headhunting. It is important to note that customers have different needs that the HR needs to consider. Besides, the organizational employees are always the first to ask for a chance should there be any vacancy. A senior recruiting manager often asks the recruiter to assist with the management of large, talented pool to ensure the recruitment of proper candidates. On the other hand, the prospective candidates often demand better designation and package with community institutions mounting the pressure on the recruiter to give the local talent the first opportunity. As a recruiter HR, I would definitely obey the orders from my supervisor before inviting the applications from qualified candidates. The I would analyze my company’s employees’ prospects to establish its capacity to manage the situation. After that, I will line up the entire candidates that meet the minimum threshold for the job for interview. However, if the local candidates portray adequate skills required for the job, then it would be critical to prefer them or the company’s to alienated candidates considering the organizational knowledge. In every recruitment process, efficient and effective communication is critical (Joshi, Liao & Martocchio, 2011, 124). The communication method used determines level of understanding between the HR and potential candidate, and guarantee the achievement of organizational success. For the recruitment purpose, the recruiter could utilize the following methods of communication with the customers. 1. Job portals: the web portal is becoming increasingly important and popular within the modern recruiters. The advantage of such medium is that within the shortest time, the recruiter can receive many applications and proceed with the recruitment process. However, it has several disadvantages. Job portals sometimes receive numerous bogus CVs and resumes. As a result, the recruiter spends much time screening them out. 2. Telephonic conversations: nowadays, most recruiters after receiving the applications from various candidates, they opt for telephonic conversations. The practice is becoming imperative in each company within the private sector. The evolution of telecommunication has evolved over the years and offers several advantages and disadvantages to the recruiters. The advantage is that the recruiter is in a position to acquire first-hand basic information of the candidates such as communication skills, the current employment status, and family upbringings. However, the disadvantage is that most candidates are reluctant of having an extempore interview and replying citing the inappropriateness of the talking time. As a result, the conversation does not get a complete and inadequate meeting of the objectives. 3. Print-adds: printing the ads within the local newspapers and popular magazines are still popular methods of inviting the applications for employment. Any organization that intends to take the services of the community, print-ads is the best method since it attracts talents. The method has both merits and demerits. The advantage is the wide circulation of the newspapers and magazines send information to a mass of people. The disadvantage is that currently most people pay less attention to the print-ads, which makes organizational valuable message, and money disappears, and the institution does not get the required results. Employee recruitment is an important HR activity, which requires considerable attention and time. In such service line, timely delivery of responsibilities within the prescribed cost is very important. In most cases, the external customers often provide stiff timelines to their relevant employment agencies (Martin, Reddington & Alexander, 2008, 181). If the HR does not find the appropriate person to fill the vacant position within the stipulated timeframe, the costs often increase subsequently since the company has to hire someone temporarily to carry out the task within the vacant position. Whenever the potential customer is hostile, HR’s reputation is always at stake as the firm could take a serious hit as the discounted customer gives the firm a tainted picture associated with organizational wrong ethics to the corporate community. Therefore, reputational management is critical for the recruiter in such instances and resolving the complaints, and proactively becoming the priority. Activity 3: Continuing Professional Development Plan and Self-assessment According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, CIPD is the requirements for the individuals to keep up with the rapidly changing knowledge. From the organizational context, CPD is a structure process of maintaining, developing, and improving the skills, knowledge, and competencies at professional and personal to ensure improved performance at work. According to Chartered Institute of Management, an effective CPD is to ensure professional commitment. Moreover, the professionals have to take personal responsibility to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge necessary to meet the challenges associated with the ever-changing world ((Rothwell & Kazanas, 2003, 162). The process needs to benefit individuals, colleagues, and organizations as a whole. Most professional bodies often require their members to ensure provision of evidence that they are in touch with the latest developments and methods. People taking professional interest in their duties need to be alert to the needs to improve their skills and competencies to guarantee the quality of their efforts (CIPD, 2009). There are several reasons for ensuring effective CPD including maintenance of the capacity and competence required to perform certain tasks. Effective leaders and managers always recommend or organize activities that they require their staffs to undertake. However, it is the responsibility of every individual to anticipate the change, keep update, and building on their strengths and ensure the development of new skills (Armstrong, 2012, 98). If the HR activities add value to the work, there are a range of roles that could contribute to a CPD, which CIPD outlines as the in-house training, a study that could lead to qualification, membership of the planning group, reading the professional magazines, and conducting work based research. According to CIPD, associated members are HR specialists holding the knowledge of each HR domain. Moreover, the associate members often assist organizations in delivering their HR plan and ensuring their perfect execution. However, the associate members work as learning and development (L&D) recruiter or officers. CIPD membership is the badge of HR professionalism that ensures elevation of one’s profile with the employees, improving career prospects, and enhancing learning potentials (Hollon, 2011). There are two steps of being a member: CIPD qualification and experience assessment. With reference to qualification, I need to demonstrate the underpinning knowledge to upgrade to professional membership. Experience assessment is the direct route into professional membership without the required CIPD qualifications. Therefore, to be an associate member, there is need to demonstrate through experience and knowledge the requirements of the CIPD. Other important areas that I would have to improve are communication and leadership skills. The primary function of the HR is to facilitate effective and effective communication between the workers and employers. Therefore, I have to sharpen both the oral and written communication skills to relay information clearly and effectively to workers at all the levels. Part of the communication that I need to develop is the negotiation. During the hiring process, successful HR needs to assist in the development of the middle ground. Leadership skills are also critical in developing effective HR personnel. In most situation, the workers look for HRs to answer their questions. The nature of most positions often sees HRs as experts in different company related issues; therefore, I would have to develop some leadership confidence. As an associate member, CIPD require demonstration of personal credibility and being a decision thinker. In most cases, the HRs goes through various problems that require their efficient and reliable decisions. From the decisive thinker’s perspective, I need to demonstrate and apply the knowledge and judgment that could assist in identifying the options and making day-to-day decisions for better performance of the organization. In addition, the HR department deals with critical information. Therefore, to meet the required qualification, I would have to ensure accuracy in the information, consistency, and relevance before carrying out any task or making decisions. Being a personal of credibility requires provision of sound, realistic, and impartial advice to the management to enhance organizational performance (Donaldson-Feilder, 2013). Moreover, CIPD requires effective HRs constantly deliver on their promises and commitments through accepting the responsibility for their actions even while facing several oppositions. One of the most important features of an HR profession is organization, which includes strong time skills management and capacity of completing the responsibilities efficiently. On a typical day, as an HR, I would be balancing various tasks that range from hiring to firing, dealing with personal issues of the employees, and the creation of various recruitment agencies. Such responsibilities require the ability to multitask, which depends on organization of tasks. To be an associate member, I would have to set ethical and behavioral standards required by CIPD for others to follow and following as well. Development Plan NAME MEMBERSHIP NUMBER DURATION FROM November TO: April Key Dates Activities Undertaken Reason Lesson Learnt Lessons Utilization November Attended workshop on upcoming human resource issues To develop the know the current issues influencing HR practice as a profession Professional bodies are currently emerging to control the HR practices and ensuring the effectiveness of the HR practice HRM plays an important role in every company as it manages the human resources at all the levels. Through the lesson, I have been ensuring that I update myself with every rising issue within the HR profession. As a result, this gave me a good understanding of the current practice and professional bodies December Attended lecture on professional integrity and effective decision making specifically for the HR practice With the increasing level of competition within the HR practice, integrity and reliable decision making is critical. Such skills are important in every organization considering the always existing human resource issues As a HR, I would have to be reliable and effective in every decision that I make since most organizational process depend on it. Moreover, HR needs to be role model to others which makes integrity a critical factor in the practice At every point, I undertake an analysis of the prevailing problems before making any decision or comment on the prevailing problem. For integrity purposes, I ensure that every opinion or advice I offer the employees, I practice it as well to acquire the trust of the employees January Attended a workshop on the role of HR in ensuring organizational compliance with various regulations Am looking forward to meeting the qualifications of CIPD and enhance my knowledge on HR practice HR needs to develop strategies of compensating the employees, looking into their welfare, and ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations At the end on the month, I was able to conduct company’s occupational health and safety audit to test on the skills that I acquired during the training. I also got the chance to advice the company on the significance of effectively managing the human resources to prevent extra cost associated with compensation and settling the lawsuits February Attending seminar on HR and leadership To understand the significance of acquiring effective leadership skills in the HR practice HR meet numerous challenges on daily basis most of which incline towards establishment of solutions of issues affecting the employees. In such cases, leadership skills are appropriate With the acquired skills, I visited some of the organization, specifically the HR departments, to assist in development of employee leadership styles February Attended Diploma in HRM to specifically learn on performance management To understand the methods of improving employee performances and the role of HR in improving such performance HR play important role in ensuring the effectiveness of the employees since they undertake the selection and hiring I used the skills acquired in rolling out the performance management system that emphasized on methods of promoting effective employee development through promotions and appraisal development March Attended lectures on communication skills To acquire communication skills which are appropriate for every HR practitioner Effective communication is critical for the achievement of the desired HR objectives. As an HR, I would have to ensure effective communication between the employees and management since HR is the link between the two In the future, I would ensure that I learn communication ability and accessibility to various channels to ensure that the employees and management get the information on time References Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrong's handbook of reward management practice: Improving performance through reward. London: Kogan Page. CIPD. (2009, April 21). HRD 2009: CIPD to introduce HR Professional Map to equip practitioners for tougher future role. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/hrd-2009-cipd-to-introduce-hr-professional-map-to-equip-practitioners-for-tougher-future-role CIPD. (2016). CIPD Profession Map - CIPD Profession Map - CIPD. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/cipd-hr-profession/profession-map/ Donaldson-Feilder, E. (2013, September 17). The Importance of Effective People Management to the Success of HR Strategy. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from http://www.halogensoftware.com/blog/the-importance-of-effective-people-management-to-the-success-of-hr-strategy Effron, M., Gandossy, R. P., & Goldsmith, M. (2003). Human resources in the 21st century. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons. Hollon, J. (2011, January 27). New Study: The Top 10 Best Practices of High-Impact HR Organizations | TLNT. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from http://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/new-study-the-top-10-best-practices-of-high-impact-hr-organizations/ Ivanovic, A., & Collin, P. H. (2006). Dictionary of human resources and personnel management. London: A & C Black. Joshi, A., Liao, H., & Martocchio, J. J. (2011). Research in personnel and human resources management. Bingley, U.K: Emerald. Martin, G., Reddington, M., & Alexander, H. (2008). Technology, outsourcing and transforming HR. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. Rothwell, W. J., & Kazanas, H. C. (2003). Planning and managing human resources: Strategic planning for human resources management. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Read More